My name is Kenneth Fisher and I am Senior DBA for a large (multi-national) insurance company. I have been working with databases for over 20 years starting with Clarion and Foxpro. I’ve been working with SQL Server for 12 years but have only really started “studying” the subject for the last 3. I don’t have any real "specialities" but I enjoy trouble shooting and teaching. Thus far I’ve earned by MCITP Database Administrator 2008, MCTS Database Administrator 2005, and MCTS Database Developer 2008. I’m currently studying for my MCITP Database Developer 2008 and should start in on the 2012 exams next year. My blog is at www.sqlstudies.com.

Archives: April 2013

I spend a reasonable amount of time looking through various forums, answering some questions and reading the answers to others. One of the things I’ve noticed is that while I frequently see system views referenced I only very rarely see the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views mentioned. This seems rather strange to me… Read more

I’ve occasionally had the problem of trying to put “smart” logging messages into a process. You know the ones, you’re trying to set up logging for a process and you really want to create a somewhat generic piece of code that you can throw into each stored procedure. Something that… Read more

I’ve been thinking recently about who writes the best documentation. Not including a professional technical writer (although they actually do fit into my conclusion). On first thought I would have thought the SME (subject matter expert) would of course write the best documentation, because they understand the processes best. Upon… Read more

This one is basic but still something that can catch you unawares if you aren’t careful. Most DBAs and developers I know use the function LEN to calculate the length of a string. Little wonder since that is exactly what this function is for. However not everyone realizes the small… Read more

I see this question in one form or another a lot. I’ve seen this or something like it probably half a dozen times in the last couple of weeks on the forums I read. To the point where it even showed up in a dream the other night (I know,… Read more